One charger to power nearly every laptop coming from standards group

Like micro-USB for phones, group seeks standard charger for notebooks.

An international standards group is seeking to replace the various power cords for portable computers with a single charger that could theoretically power any laptop.

While non-Apple mobile phones are generally powered by micro-USB, allowing a charger for one device to be used with another, notebook computers still come with an assortment of chargers that are incompatible with one another. This week, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) announced "the first globally relevant Technical Specification for a single external charger for a wide range of notebook computers and laptops."

The IEC has experience here, having previously developed a now widely used phone standard built on top of micro-USB.

The new specification for notebooks will be published in early 2014. Titled "IEC Technical Specification 62700: DC Power supply for notebook computer," it will cover "critical aspects of external chargers for notebook computers, their connector and plug, as well as safety, interoperability, performance, and environmental considerations," the IEC said.

The IEC hopes the standard will reduce the amount of electronic waste while making it easier to buy new chargers when an old one stops working. Although Apple is likely to keep using its proprietary MagSafe power adapters, the standard will hopefully be adopted by top PC vendors such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Acer.

A single type of charger to cover any consumer electronics device is probably a pipe dream, but the IEC believes widespread adoption of a laptop standard is realistic.

"Even though some organizations are discussing and examining the merits of a universal power adapter covering numerous ICT (Information and Communication Technology) devices, due to the technical realities, this is likely still a long way from being achievable," the group said. "Therefore, rather than chasing a dream that remains out of reach today, the IEC has leveraged its global technical expertise to bring concrete solutions to the market place."

Professionally speaking, this sounds great. Standardized adapters for notebooks would be a dream for IT departments. Though I don't know how one standard power brick could scale for high-performance laptops though.. surely they'd demand a lot more juice than the average laptop.

But personally speaking, once you go MagSafe, everything else is a hassle. A reversible power cable held by a weak magnetic connection that safely disconnects in case of trips? Fantastic. A best in class design.

I don't think a single charger even makes sense. An 11" ultrabook's peak power draw is much smaller than a 14/15" mainstream laptop, while an 17" SLI gaming laptop needs considerably more power. A few standard capacities might work but the power spread is too wide for one charger to rule them all.

Are these people working with the high power USB charging group (5A @ 5/12/20V); or are we going to have two next generation "universal" charging standards? With 100W peak power the USB group is planning to cover most of the mainstream laptop charger range.

Are these people working with the high power USB charging group (5A @ 5/12/20V); or are we going to have two next generation "universal" charging standards? With 100W peak power the USB group is planning to cover most of the mainstream laptop charger range.

I don't think a single charger even makes sense. An 11" ultrabook's peak power draw is much smaller than a 14/15" mainstream laptop, while an 17" SLI gaming laptop needs considerably more power. A few standard capacities might work but the power spread is too wide for one charger to rule them all.

Reducing the number of different chargers to three different classes would be a huge improvement. They could all use the same plugs, but have a color coding system or something similar that would make it abundantly clear which adapter you needed to plug into your laptop. Perhaps the lower power class adapter would work for beefier machines, but certain functions would be limited and a notification would pop up when the wrong adapter was plugged in.

I don't think a single charger even makes sense. An 11" ultrabook's peak power draw is much smaller than a 14/15" mainstream laptop, while an 17" SLI gaming laptop needs considerably more power. A few standard capacities might work but the power spread is too wide for one charger to rule them all.

Standardized connectors (preferably quick disconnects to avoid damage) would be the place to start, then a few different capacity chargers for the first iteration. To make it truly universal, you'd want to go with the highest power rating, and make the brick and connector smart -- have the laptop communicate its power requirements to the charger, and have the brick autoswitch to provide the optimum power to the laptop without user interaction.

I'm pretty sure they just want to standardize connectors. Is there a downside to plugging in an underpowered power brick other than eventually running out of charge (assuming you are consuming more than the charger can supply) ?

Well, I can see there being a single-standard but perhaps multiple different types.

e.g. 90w / 135w / 180w

My laptop is pretty heavy duty and requires a 170w adapter, but that is way overkill for a lightweight netbook / tablet

Dell has been doing this for years. Some machines will run on the smaller sized bricks but require a larger capacity unit when running in a docking station.

Even better, if you plug in a charger that is too small (like one of the 65w ultraportable chargers into a lunking E65xx series), the charger will simply run the laptop without trying to recharge the battery unless you put the laptop to sleep or turn it off. Dell has actually been good about this, they've used the same barrel plug and voltages for years now. I have old D series power bricks that still see frequent use.

It's about time. The only objection that PC vendors will have is that they won't be able to charge exorbitant prices for chargers anymore.

Wasn't this the primary reason for non-standard chargers anyway? Most vendors don't even use the same charger in their own line of products...

Depends on the company. Dell kept the charger the same between it's D and E series Latitude laptops; that means the same charger I got when I started my current job 8.5 year ago will work with their latest and greatest. It looks like the C series used a different plug; but even if Dell changes their plug out when they launch the F series (based on historic patterns probably next year) that's a full decade of models with compatible chargers.

Placing my bet now that MacBooks completely ignore this .. just like iPhones completely ignored the micro-USB standards ..

I still get people today surprised that they can use the same cable to charge a Blackberry, Lumia and Samsung Galaxy .. more often than not I get "no you can't" until I prove them wrong.

I don't see why everyone doesn't just license Apple's MagSafe adapter. It's clearly a superior solution. It's saved my laptop from countless total disasters. And if someone licensed it for headphones that would be nice too.

My biggest disappointment is that they couldn't just standardize on Thunderbolt for all devices for all charging and data transfer since TB supports both.

I don't think a single charger even makes sense. An 11" ultrabook's peak power draw is much smaller than a 14/15" mainstream laptop, while an 17" SLI gaming laptop needs considerably more power. A few standard capacities might work but the power spread is too wide for one charger to rule them all.

Standardized connectors (preferably quick disconnects to avoid damage) would be the place to start, then a few different capacity chargers for the first iteration. To make it truly universal, you'd want to go with the highest power rating, and make the brick and connector smart -- have the laptop communicate its power requirements to the charger, and have the brick autoswitch to provide the optimum power to the laptop without user interaction.

Potential downside there is having a ~200w breeze-block of an adapter for a tiny 11" low-powered laptop

Plus, I don't want every power brick to potentially be a USB infection target. This is also a problem for people with sensitive material who have to epoxy up all of the USB/SD/Expresscard slots on their machines.

Plus, I don't want every power brick to potentially be a USB infection target. This is also a problem for people with sensitive material who have to epoxy up all of the USB/SD/Expresscard slots on their machines.

There is something to be said for dumb power bricks.

I missed the part where they said that they would be using USB.

They probably aren't, but people in this thread have suggested USB3 high power as the standard a few times, and I don't think it is a good idea.

Placing my bet now that MacBooks completely ignore this .. just like iPhones completely ignored the micro-USB standards ..

I still get people today surprised that they can use the same cable to charge a Blackberry, Lumia and Samsung Galaxy .. more often than not I get "no you can't" until I prove them wrong.

I don't see why everyone doesn't just license Apple's MagSafe adapter. It's clearly a superior solution. It's saved my laptop from countless total disasters. And if someone licensed it for headphones that would be nice too.

My biggest disappointment is that they couldn't just standardize on Thunderbolt for all devices for all charging and data transfer since TB supports both.

Yeh .. because I can really see Apple licensing that to their competitors?

Even if they did, do you really want an extra +20% (min) premium on all new power bricks?

At least get Jony Ive to design the bloody thing.If we can only have one then at least have it be aesthetically pleasing.

I assume they want it to take less time and a few dozen less engineers to build it, so Ive's out of the question.

It's too bad this didn't happen a decade ago when it was probably at its peak problem. These days with more devices being of the phone and tablet nature vs actual laptops, and with laptops being viable for far longer than they used to be, it's not going to be as needed as it once was, though still appreciated.

At our company we have around 3-5 (who's counting) different laptop series. Three (or maybe four) of those are HP, one Acer and one Dell.

None of the chargers are compatible with any of the other laptops. So everytime we get a laptop to repair, we first have to dig through our big chest (which also includes some chargers from no longer <officially> used laptops) o' chargers and test them one by one to see which fits.

I doubt I'll see a standard during my lifetime. But I'm sure my grandchildren will be happy about it.

Placing my bet now that MacBooks completely ignore this .. just like iPhones completely ignored the micro-USB standards ..

I still get people today surprised that they can use the same cable to charge a Blackberry, Lumia and Samsung Galaxy .. more often than not I get "no you can't" until I prove them wrong.

I don't see why everyone doesn't just license Apple's MagSafe adapter. It's clearly a superior solution. It's saved my laptop from countless total disasters. And if someone licensed it for headphones that would be nice too.

My biggest disappointment is that they couldn't just standardize on Thunderbolt for all devices for all charging and data transfer since TB supports both.

As a general rule Apple's not willing to license stuff like that; so until the patent expires we probably won't see anyone else using it. The kicker is that the easy pull away magnetic power connector has been the standard for commercial deep friers for decades before Apple got a "for a laptop" patent on it.

Professionally speaking, this sounds great. Standardized adapters for notebooks would be a dream for IT departments. Though I don't know how one standard power brick could scale for high-performance laptops though.. surely they'd demand a lot more juice than the average laptop.

But personally speaking, once you go MagSafe, everything else is a hassle. A reversible power cable held by a weak magnetic connection that safely disconnects in case of trips? Fantastic. A best in class design.

The difference in power usage between a low-end laptop and a high-end gaming laptop is probably less than 100w. The range is probably between 65-180 watt. And you'd be surprised at how small a 180w power supply can get if you design it really well (high-efficiency). Most laptop supplies probably aren't designed that way. They're limited more by cost (cheap) than by efficiency.

Professionally speaking, this sounds great. Standardized adapters for notebooks would be a dream for IT departments. Though I don't know how one standard power brick could scale for high-performance laptops though.. surely they'd demand a lot more juice than the average laptop.

But personally speaking, once you go MagSafe, everything else is a hassle. A reversible power cable held by a weak magnetic connection that safely disconnects in case of trips? Fantastic. A best in class design.

The difference in power usage between a low-end laptop and a high-end gaming laptop is probably less than 100w. The range is probably between 65-180 watt. And you'd be surprised at how small a 180w power supply can get if you design it really well (high-efficiency). Most laptop supplies probably aren't designed that way. They're limited more by cost (cheap) than by efficiency.

If you implement a standard which doubles the cost of the current OEM's power bricks .. they won't follow it

Placing my bet now that MacBooks completely ignore this .. just like iPhones completely ignored the micro-USB standards ..

I still get people today surprised that they can use the same cable to charge a Blackberry, Lumia and Samsung Galaxy .. more often than not I get "no you can't" until I prove them wrong.

I don't see why everyone doesn't just license Apple's MagSafe adapter. It's clearly a superior solution. It's saved my laptop from countless total disasters. And if someone licensed it for headphones that would be nice too.

My biggest disappointment is that they couldn't just standardize on Thunderbolt for all devices for all charging and data transfer since TB supports both.

While I love the convenience of the Magsafe adapter, I wouldn't call it 'clearly superior'. It's the only power cable I've owned that needs one end to be covered in electrical tape after it starts fraying. And this is from a 2012 MBA cable, not the version involved in the class action lawsuit.

... the easy pull away magnetic power connector has been the standard for commercial deep friers for decades before Apple got a "for a laptop" patent on it.

You win my vote for factoid of the week; thank you... I never would have known that.

I agree that it's been really nice to be able to just grab a Dell adapter whether it's for my tiny 11" inspiron that I take to classes or a beefier E series. Including the adapter from my old Pentium M notebook!

If the standard were to just do what Dell does (isn't it some sort of Dallas Semiconductor one-wire chip that's programmed to report the wattage available?), that would be great. Maybe the standard could include add a passive (wires only) tip converter to handle very thin ultrabooks or add magnetic attachment once Apple's "now do it on a computer" patent expires. LED lighting and sensible cord management would just be design options up to the individual manufacturer.

The standard is backward compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. Using three power profiles of those defined in the USB Power Delivery Specification, it lets devices with larger energy demands request higher currents and supply voltages from compliant hosts, up to 2 A at 5 V (for a power consumption of up to 10 W), and optionally up to 5 A at either 12 V (60 W) or 20 V (100 W).